1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a portable locator system and more particularly a portable locator system for facilitating collection of information relating to visits by persons or objects at different locations within a facility.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Market analysts and sellers of goods and services make extensive use of data relating to the behavior of their purchasers to better target and market their goods and services. Data relating to consumer traffic is one purchaser behavior data used to gauge the attractiveness of the goods or services offered for sale. For example, data such as frequency and duration of visits to Internet websites where goods and services are offered is useful data for the seller marketing their goods.
For the operators of supermarkets and other large retail establishments, it may be important to know the traffic pattern of the shoppers, such as the frequencies of visits to certain isles and the duration of visits at certain types of goods or at locations where particular brands of goods are shelved.
In a tradeshow setting, exhibitors would like to know how often and for how long are visits to their booths to gauge the appeal to buyers of their goods. If available, the identity of the persons visited and the companies they belong to are valuable information to the sellers. Exhibitors often ask for visitors"" business cards or use other techniques such as offer novelty gifts to entice visits by attendees so that the information can be collected. The identity and company information can be used by the marketer to follow up on the visitor""s interests or to identify visits by competitors. When such information is coupled with the frequencies and durations of visits, the marketer can better gauge the level of interests in the marketer""s product(s). When exhibitors display several products, it would also be helpful to know which of the products the attendees visited and for how long.
Shopper profiling software is now readily employed by Internet website operators to profile visitors to their sites. Operators of online shopping sites employ software to collect shopper traffic information such as which pages of product information were browsed, their viewing durations, frequencies, and types of goods browsed or purchased. With such information, the sellers can better solicit similar types of goods to the identified shoppers. Email solicitations seen to the target shopper are now common occurrences.
In a physical setting, a locator system can be used to collect information such as the identity of individuals, locations of visits by the individuals, and the durations of stays at different locations. Exemplary location systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,426 to Yacenda, U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,851 to Chaco, and application serial No. 60/119,268, filed by John Chaco on Feb. 9, 1999. The disclosures in their entirety in these patents and patent application are incorporated by reference herein.
As can be seen from the above patents, a locator system for locating persons or objects within a facility includes portable badges worn by persons or objects which transmit identification information to receivers at fixed locations. A central processor collects the identification information from the receivers to determine the locations of the persons or objects. Typically, a receiver is installed in each room of the facility. Each receiver is connected by wire to the central processor. It can be appreciated that installation of a locator system requires considerable wiring, planning, and time. Once installed, reconfiguration of the system can be costly and difficult.
Therefore, a need exists for a locator system which can be portable, affording ease of installation and changes in system configuration, for collecting location and traffic information in facilities requiring frequent configuration changes.
A locator system for locating objects within a facility, comprising a plurality of badges, each having a badge transmitter for wirelessly transmitting a unique identification code, a database for storing a list of each badge, its identification code and a person or an object associated with each badge, and a plurality of transceivers spatially dispersed within the facility, each of the transceivers having a transceiver receive for receiving the identification code and a transceiver transmitter for wirelessly forwarding signals to a central processor, the signals including the unique identification code received from said badges, wherein the central processor determines from the signals received from the transceivers the location of the person or object.
Preferably, the central processor determines from the signals received from the transceivers the time the identification codes were received, by which transceivers, and the durations of receipt of the same identification code by each transceiver. The central processor preferably also generates a database listing the persons or objects located, locations visited by the persons or objects, and the duration of each visit.
In one embodiment of the system of the present invention, each of the transceivers receives in infrared the unique is identification codes from the badges and the transceivers transmit the signals to the central processor in RF.
In another embodiment, a plurality of transceiver modules are connected to the central processor through a local area network.
A method is also provided for collecting location data within a facility comprising the steps of: associating each of a plurality of objects or persons to a respective one of a plurality of badges; each of the badges having a unique identification code; wirelessly transmitting from each of said plurality of badges the unique identification code; receiving at transceivers within range of reception the unique identification code; wirelessly transmitting from the transceivers signals to a central processor, the signals including the unique identification code of the badge and its own identification code; determining from the signals received from the transceivers the locations of the transceivers and badges, and maintaining at the central processor, a list of objects or persons associated with respective badges and the locations of the objects or persons traveled within the facility.
In one embodiment, signal strength information relating to transmissions received from the badges is used to discriminate a transceiver closer to the transmitting badge. The central processor includes a RF transmitter for transmitting interrogation signals to each of the plurality of transceivers.
In still another embodiment, a portable locator system is provided for locating objects within a facility comprising a plurality of wireless transmitters, each having a unique identification code, for periodically transmitting the identification code, at least one wireless transceiver for receiving within its reception range the identification code transmitted from each of the wireless transmitters and for transmitting a message including the identification code of the wireless transmitter and identification code of said wireless transceiver, and a plurality of transceiver modules for receiving the message from the wireless transceiver and transmitting signals to a central processor, the signals including the identification codes of the wireless transmitter and the wireless transceivers wherein the central processor determines the locations of the wireless transmitters from the signals. The wireless transmitters and the wireless transceiver transmit in RF.
The system further includes memory for storing a list of each of the wireless transmitters, its identification code, identification of a person or an object associated with each of the wireless transmitter, and locations and times of travel. Another listing includes names of persons or identification of objects associated with each of the wireless transmitters, products associated with the at least one wireless transceiver having received transmissions from the wireless transmitters, and times and durations of the reception.